Ruler: Master of the Mask

Ruler: Master of the Mask

4.5/10

Ruler: Master of the Mask

Genre:                               Episodes: 20                         Year: 2017

Romance

Historical

Synopsis:

Pyunsoo is a group that control Joseon from the shadows. The organisation uses their power and wealth to privatise water, and the country’s people suffer greatly due to their actions. Crown Prince Lee Sun is an idealistic young Prince who wishes to free Joseon from Pyunsoo. 

Cast:

Yoo Seung Ho (Prince Lee Sun)

Kim So Hyun (Han Ga Eun)

L (Lee Sun)

Yoon So Hee (Kim Hwa Gun)

Heo Joon Ho (Dae Mok)

Park Chul Min (Woo Bo)

Shin Hyun Soo (Lee Chung Woon)

Bae Yoo Ram (Park Moo Ha)

Lee Chae Young (Mae Chang)

Kim Seo Kyung (Gon)

General Thoughts:

Whew- this one was a bit of a struggle to get through. Despite the great expectations that this drama raised, it crumbled underneath all its hype. The show aimed to be a sweepingly romantic, epic sageuk, but it didn’t come close.

It was just salt in the wound that this was stealing ratings away from '7 Day Queen'

The romance was weak, with the leads falling for each other in a split second with no build up and no reasoning, and all points of the show that should have been epic were either easily avoidable, confusing or concluded without much struggle. The writing is definitely to blame here, and the slow and befuddling plot makes the drama a real drag.

My feelings when I realised I had to sit through 20 hours of confused nonsense

For starters, the show didn’t really stick to its premise. Yes there’s a mask and a real King and a fake king, but water being privatised was brushed over in about 30 seconds in the first few episodes, and the heroine’s vendetta against the King/Crown Prince is short and bland- not to mention she doesn’t act on it. I was kinda expecting Ga Eun to be a secret, sly assassin waiting for her chance to strike the King (only to find out it was the man she loved all along)- I didn’t expect her to be a useless crybaby that didn’t do anything and only got about 5 minutes of airtime each episode. Hooooooo, okay, let’s go back to the beginning. Sun’s Dad sells himself to Pyunsoo to become King. And then he’s super agitated that he’s a puppet King and Pyunsoo Group has all the control (like, hello dude, what did you expect?). He then places a huge amount of pressure on Sun saying that he needs to be the king that saves the people (from the evil he invited in, I might add). Then everyone gets super angry when Sun tries to do something about it, saying that he can’t know how the world works because he’s sheltered (as if they weren’t the ones who sheltered him).

"Son, you were born to battle the evil I let in, and I sure as hell won't help you in any way."

Then for a very thinly veiled reason Ga Eun’s father is arrested and scheduled for execution. When Sun finds a way to sneak Ga Eun’s father out of prison he refuses (yeah what) saying that he won’t live his life as a criminal, so instead he gets executed as a criminal (double yeah what).

Why is everyone in this show so eager to die?

Dad dies, Ga Eun cries and Sun makes his (very) newly made friend, Lee Sun, stand in for him as Crown Prince. Pyunsoo kill Sun’s Dad (am I supposed to feel bad about this? He was a total ass, not to mention super unhelpful…), Lee Sun is crowned as a fake king and Sun lives outside the palace to ‘connect with’ and ‘understand’ the people. I say this sarcastically because this is glossed over in the time skip, and Sun is really no smarter about the people 5 years down the track. Anyway- so that was our opening, and the rest of the show makes about as much sense as that did, if not less. The characters get very little development, and the development they do get is often extreme and not at all realistic. Rather than showing a gradual buildup of emotions, our characters were suddenly 100% confident in their feelings. After several brief, and not very deep, encounters, Sun and Ga Eun are suddenly so very in love with each other that they would risk it all for the other.

And you like each other...why?

After more than 5 years waiting for Sun and being a quiet puppet king, Lee Sun suddenly hates Sun and wants to be king forever. I mean, these aren’t unbelievable ideas, it was just that there was no progression towards these outbursts- they just suddenly happened. The smaller stories (buying up the copper, rescuing the child workers, burning the poppies) were all interesting enough, but I just didn’t care enough about the characters to have these events hold any gravitas.

♫ I don't ca-a-a-a-a-are ♫

Except for Hwa Gun who was fab. Because the characters had such little development, it just felt like a bunch of blobs running around slowly (and I mean slowly) solving some problems. I’m sure that there were pieces of information that would have made the confusing aspects of the plot a lot less confusing, but I often found my mind wandering during episodes. Sure, it’s partly my fault for not paying attention, but it’s also kind of the writers' fault for not engaging me. When I’m engaged in a story I will remember every detail- I don’t even want to admit what sort of ridiculous details I remember about ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ (there’s a lot), but I can barely even remember the ridiculous reason behind why Ga Eun’s father was beheaded in this show. Of course, having characters that are poorly written gives the actors an extra hard job too. I’m slowly starting to realise that I’m not as much of a fan of Yoo Seung Ho as I thought I was (please don’t kill me). His characters often annoy me, and when he cries I tend to find him weak and useless rather than pitiful or loveable.

Whine on

I like him much better when he’s determined and strong, which thankfully he was for the most part in ‘Ruler’. But he just didn’t sell the love line that well. Understandably, because the love line is pretty darn awful. It was a difficult task for Yoo Seung Ho to convince me that Sun was a character that made sense, and he didn’t quite manage it.

Let's start picking better projects, okay?

I mean, when the character is written as a King who wants to rise up so he can save the common folk, but then constantly risks everything for one girl, the actor’s not really going to be able to make that go smoothly. I mean really, the whole ‘what sort of King would I be if I couldn’t even save the woman I love?’ thing was just stupid. You’d be an alive King who could actually do something about the people’s suffering. Stupid. What good are you to anyone if you’re dead? And boy did Ga Eun make me really angry at the casting director. If you’re going to give us an absolutely useless female lead, cast someone I don’t care about. Don’t cast Kim So Hyun and squander all her talent! It actually made me quite angry at how this amazing, powerful actress was given absolutely nothing to do. L was okay, but I really don’t think he was quite up to the task of making a bland character pop. Lee Sun was pretty annoying when he was a whimpering servant, but his transition into confident, mildly villainous king was just a tad too schizophrenic for my taste. Also his posture killed me. Yeah, I know he’s trying to be a cowering lower class man and all, but all that hunch did was make me want to put a knee in his spine and yank his shoulders back.

Like come one man, sit up straight

Yoon So Hee was a bit rocky to start, with her character's sudden and random love for Sun, but as the story progressed she settled in Hwa Gun’s character nicely. By the end of her story arc she felt comfortable in her role and gave a convincing, confident performance.

Quit playin' boy, we all know you ain't takin' it off

The side characters were all okay, barring Kim Young Woong who I find weirdly bad in everything. The plot itself felt super long, and dragged out points that should have been addressed much earlier. I mean, it took more than half the drama for Ga Eun to find out that Lee Sun was the King, and even longer than that to find out that Sun was the real King. There were so many moments where characters came close to finding out secrets about each other (that we the viewers already knew), that by the time these reveals came around I just didn’t care anymore. Ga Eun nearly discovered Lee Sun behind the mask so many times that it stopped being a cliffhanger moment- because we just knew something would happen that would prevent that mask from coming off. Long story short, this drama isn’t really what I was expecting it to be, and didn't really do a good job in telling its story.

A little less talking, a little more action please

Worse than being downright ridiculous-bad (giving ‘Scarlet Heart’ some serious side-eye here), ‘Ruler’ kind of just meandered on boring-bad, where it had all the right ingredients but just had no idea what to do with them, and so decided to do nothing. For 20 hours.

What Was Great:

Antagonists:

Thank goodness for our antagonists because really, they were the only ones that got anything done. Any time Dae Mok wasn’t actively involved in the story the pace of the show slowed right down and my interest started to drop.

He may be evil but Dae Mok knows how to get sh*t done

Once Dae Mok was back on board stirring things up and making trouble, the show became a lot more enjoyable. It almost got to the point where I was rooting for him and Pyunsoo just because he was interesting to watch on screen. While technically our second female lead is a hero, I’m still going to include Hwa Gun in this section,

The heroine of my heart

because as Dae Mok’s granddaughter and the new leader of Pyunsoo she was always aligned with the other antagonists. Boy, was Hwa Gun interesting. Once you accepted her rather abrupt love for Sun, her dilemma became quite fascinating. Her love for her family always collided with her love for Sun, and the tension just grew tighter and tighter as the time came for her to make a choice between the two. Hwa Gun was an upright and upstanding character who made many sacrifices for Sun, despite his indifference to her romantic feelings. She had a total Romeo and Juliet type of relationship with Sun, and I can’t help but wonder if this series would have been any better if Hwa Gun had been our leading lady. Hwa Gun was the interesting, active heroine I wanted for this show, often taking situations into her own hands and striving to always be on the front foot (unlike Ga Eun who knew nothing and did nothing). Hwa Gun’s defiant attitude and unwillingness to compromise Sun made for an interesting dynamic between the other Pyunsoo members. The love between Dae Mok and Hwa Gun was clear to see, which only made the friction caused by Sun more fascinating.

This is where the real tension's at

Hwa Gun’s Dad was a character I found surprisingly interesting. He lacked the smarts and cunning that Dae Mok and his daughter had, but his gentleness and love for his family was always nice to see. It was clear that Hwa Gun was going to be the dividing point between her father and grandfather, and it was bittersweet to see how her death at Dae Mok’s hand was what lost Dae Mok the respect of his son.

The only couple I really care about

And of course, without Hwa Gun we wouldn’t have had Gon. It took me a bit by surprise how alarmed I was when Gon was nearly killed, and I realised how much I didn’t want him to die. Even though he was a side character’s side kick, Gon still managed to get more character development than either of our leads. Despite not having many lines that went beyond accepting an order, Kim Seo Kyung was able to express Gon’s one sided love for his Lady, Hwa Gun, perfectly. As much as I adored Hwa Gun’s pure and unfaltering love for Sun, I liked Gon’s secret love just a little bit more. Gon was a character that gave Hwa Gun (and later Sun) power through his fighting skills, so it was nice to have a reason for him serving the two that went beyond just following orders. Lee Sun was a character that was either super interesting or super boring. For about 80% of this drama while he’s politely keeping the throne warm for Sun, Lee Sun was dead boring. Then towards the end he starts to have some autonomy (or so he thinks) and tries to shake things up a bit. Yay for shaking things up.

Really at this point I'll cheer for anyone who does anything that's not sitting around and talking

Sadly for Lee Sun, this didn’t exactly make his character any more likeable. It was less the fact the he was going against Sun and Ga Eun (because I didn’t really care about those guys at all), it was more the suddenly schizophrenic nature he possessed that made him a bit weird. Frankly speaking, I kind of wished that Lee Sun had successfully taken something away from Sun, cuz the real King seemed to have everything going for him and actually didn’t have to sacrifice much over the course of the drama.

Honestly speaking, I couldn't care less who ends up King

While a lot of people cursed him and called him greedy, I actually liked Lee Sun’s desire to keep the throne for himself. Because as things stand Sun really screwed his ‘friend’, over pretty royally. I mean, Sun (unintentionally) set up events for Lee Sun’s father to get murdered. He then starts wooing the girl Lee Sun likes.

You guys are terrible, terrible friends

He then asks Lee Sun to pretend to Prince just for a little while. Sh*t hits the fan, Lee Sun is forced to join Pyunsoo group, is continually poisoned and under threat of death every 15 days all while Sun runs off into hiding to protect himself. A whole FIVE YEARS pass in which Lee Sun is still being used, poisoned and threatened (all while separated from his family) and Sun makes no move to go and free his friend. While Lee Sun is suffering, Sun is off chasing a girl and making no effort to help anyone really- he’s even getting chummy with Lee Sun’s mother and sister. And still after all this Lee Sun intends to return the throne. Sun trying to marry Ga Eun was really the last straw for Lee Sun and he understandably snaps. Basically Sun and Ga Eun are officially the worst friends anyone could ever have. So I couldn’t help but cheer for Lee Sun a bit when he tried to keep the throne, if only because I wanted Sun to see how much of a wanker he’d been to this poor kid. Of course he doesn’t though and instead guilt trips Lee Sun for wanting the throne when he had nothing and Sun had everything. 

Costuming:

Everything was very pretty in this drama, particularly the costumes. Historical dramas always tend to have beautiful costumes and ‘Ruler’ is no exception. However, historical K-Dramas don’t always have the best wigs (I’ve seen some real shockers), but this drama thankfully gives us very nice and very natural looking hair- for both the males and females. 

Much pretty

What Wasn’t:

Non-Existant Heroine:

Ga Eun sucks. Sageuks are known for having pretty useless heroines (‘Moon that Embraces the Sun’, ‘Scarlet Heart Ryeo’), but ‘Ruler’ really takes the biscuit for the suckiest heroine.

Damsel in distress

Originally Ga Eun was quite cool. She hated injustice, was studying despite being a girl in a patriarchal society, and had no problem being friendly with people ranked lower than herself. She had to see her father executed and was then forced out of her home. Despite all the hardships,

Damsel still in distress

Ga Eun rallied the villagers around her who had also lost their homes and they built a market place in the middle of nowhere under Ga Eun’s instruction. And there ends our heroine’s usefulness. It also didn’t hurt that at the start while Ga Eun was quite likeable, Hwa Gun was acting kinda like a crazy person. But as soon as Sun comes on the scene, Ga Eun becomes completely and totally nothing-y. She literally does nothing of importance for the rest of the series. It kind of felt like the only reason she was in this show at all was because there needed to be some reason for Lee Sun to want to keep the throne. Ignoring that fact, without Ga Eun the rest of the drama probably would have progressed much the same, except that maybe Sun would have actually been a hero for the common people rather than just chasing after some girl and then becoming King so that he could marry her. I mean, I guess she did find the jar containing the document that proved Sun was King, but at the same time she was told to look for it in the first few episodes and didn’t actually find it until the second-to-last.

Congratulations, it only took you 15 episodes

During the period of time after the time skip and before Hwa Gun died, I actually think Hwa Gun got significantly more screen time than Ga Eun. Because she just mattered more, was more involved, and wasn’t annoying. I swear, Ga Eun never actually tried to solve any problems (and the times she did try she just made things worse- like becoming a court lady? Really?). Instead she just sat around and cried a lot. Frankly speaking I have no idea why Sun was so drawn to her, as in Joseon I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to find a girl who whines and cries.

Recommend?

I strongly DO NOT recommend this drama. It’s long, exasperating, and left me feeling worn out rather than entertained.

Aaaaaaand it's over

Master's Sun

Master’s Sun

7/10

Master's Sun

Genre:                          Episodes: 17                      Year: 2013

Romance

Comedy

Supernatural 

Synopsis:

Tae Gong Shil has the ability to see spirits and ghosts. The ghosts do whatever they can to get her attention so that she can fulfil their requests, and often resort to terrifying her until she obliges. Due to her fear of ghosts, Gong Shil stays away from crowded places and struggles to live a normal life. By coincidence she runs into the CEO of a shopping mall, Joo Joong Won. Gong Shil soon discovers that when she touches Joong Won, she looses her ability to see the dead and decides to stay by him at all costs.

Cast:

Gong Hyo Jin (Tae Gong Shil/Tae Yang)

So Ji Sub (Joo Joong Won)

Seo In Guk (Kang Woo)

Kim Yoo Ri (Tae Yi Ryung)

Choi Jung Woo (Kim Gwi Do)

Han Bo Reum (Cha Hee Joo/Han Na Brown)

Hwang Sun Hee (Han Na Brown)

L (Joon Joong Won)

General Thoughts:

It’s generally a sweet drama that zips along quite nicely. There are definitely some plot points that aren’t quite A-Grade material, but the ridiculous amounts of cute from our leading couple does a pretty great job at covering any other weaknesses that the series develops. Also this set-up is the best excuse for skinship I’ve ever seen. Yes. Wonderful.

More Please

That being said, the downside of the leading couple carrying most of the interest meant that any time they weren’t together (and this is a Hong Sisters drama- so there’s going to be a time they’re not together) the drama was stripped of most of its entertainment. A lot of credit for this drama has to go to its leading actors- they really sold the romance, and the romance was at the heart of the show. Gong Hyo Jin is delightful (of course).

Everyone loves Gong Hyo Jin. Everyone loves So Ji Sub

I wouldn’t go as far as saying she’s the best actress out there, but there’s just something about her that draws you in and makes you love her, and whatever character she’s playing. So Ji Sub was wonderful as CEO Joo Joong Won- which is a huge feat in a world so full of K-Dramas staring abrasive CEOs. What I loved most about the character of Joong Won is that he wasn’t a hard-exterior-soft-interior type of CEO lead. He was kind of an ass…all the time. Meeting this ghost-seeing heroine didn’t magically melt away his prickly personality- he simply liked her in spite of his prickly personality. Which is adorable and hilarious, and So Ji Sub could deliver it so, so well. Unfortunately there’s not a lot to say about the other cast members as the leading couple definitely dominated, and thus reduced the screen time, plot time and interest levels of the other characters. Seo In Guk has a similar quality to Gong Hyo Jin- you just adore him in whatever role he’s playing, and he was cute as the bodyguard with a fear of ghosts. Even if his character did get little development and was booted out of the love-triangle pretty darn quick. Which is a shame, I would have liked to see Kang Candy get a little more development- he was too interesting a character to have fall by the wayside.

Plus their dates getting crashed by ghosts was always hilarious

Kang Candy’s final love interest almost bored me to tears. I’m not a huge fan of stroppy, entitled female characters- so Tae Yi Ryung didn’t do a lot for me. Sure, there were times when I thought she was a little bit cute, and the ending between her and Kang Woo was super adorable (that red carpet walk), but all in all I thought Kang Woo could do a lot better. Again, a little character development probably would have done that pairing the world of good. Plot-wise the drama was well played out.

More kissing, less conflict

Small ghost conflicts helped out our main couple development until our characters were at the point that they could handle the main ghost conflict. Which actually turned out to be a little lacking. I pegged the twin bait-and-switch pretty early on (and I know a lot of other viewers did too). Predictability isn’t necessarily a huge problem if you’ve got the substance to pull of the story believably. However, the drama seemed to be relying on no one clicking on to the fact that the girls were twins, or that it was the good twin that died. Which is unfortunate, because that twist isn’t even that huge- the only real difference it made was how our hero viewed his dead first love- is she the sweet angel he initially thought, or the bad b*tch he came to know her as? Once again, I wish just a tad more effort had been spent developing the twin characters in order to give the final reveal a bit more of an emotional blow. Even better, I wish that both twins had perhaps been a little bit dark and Han Na actually wanted to take over Tae Yang’s body- at least then the stakes would have been higher. As it was, the two girls were rather flat, two-dimensional characters with not a lot going on under the surface. If indeed we had one evil twin and one good twin (egghhh the cliche), why didn’t the good dead twin just tell Tae Yang what the deal was? You’re telling me she actually placed the sister she’d known very briefly (who then killed her) over the man she completely loved? Yeaaaahhh…not buying that.

And in case you needed help, the twins were conveniently colour-coded. White = Good. Dark = Bad.

It did feel a little like the writers were grasping at whatever they could think of to explain why Joong Won saw his first love at his kidnapping, and then why her ghost stuck around. Ah well- it wasn't great, but it didn't suck either. Also, I won’t lie- I remember nothing from the soundtrack, so I think it’s safe to say it was pretty unexceptional. 

What Was Great:

Ghost of the Hour:

The ghosts were scary as f*ck. No joke. They were terrifying. Which was awesome. Having the ghosts be as scary as they were actually did an excellent job of highlighting our heroine’s main conflict. She sees dead people. They’re scary.

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE

She doesn’t like seeing dead people. It made her instantaneous clinging to Joong Won so much more understandable than if the ghosts had simply been slightly translucent people with pale faces. I would cling to whatever man came my way if I saw stuff like that and he could make it disappear. Freakiness aside, the ghost stories that ran over one or two episodes did a great job at not only keeping interest while the main conflict was building, but also impacted on our main characters and their relationship. Unlike in some other supernatural dramas (cough, ‘Who Are You’, cough), the small ghost plots helped to shape the way our characters viewed each other, and were a nice way to bring them closer- rather than simply providing filler episodes. Each ghost story caused something new to be revealed about either Tae Yang or Joong Won, which of course furthered the romance. And we love it when the romance is furthered. 

This is okay though, I can deal with this

Is He Dead?:

I give full props to the show for making me believe that there was the possibility of them killing off the male lead 3/4 of the way in. In most rom-coms this is an inconceivable event- but with the whole ghost premise, it’s actually fairly plausible in this setting. Sure, it was only left as a cliffhanger for one episode- BUT I WAS HANGING OFF THAT CLIFF. There were various upsides and downsides to killing of the hero midway through- all which would have been consistent with the rules the show set up. Which is another thing this drama did rather brilliantly. It followed its own rules in regards to the supernatural elements. We’d seen previously that Tae Yang could see the spirits of ghosts in comas, so it wasn’t a bolt out of the blue or an easy pass that the writers used when Joong Won was just in a coma, or had died momentarily, or whatever nightmare that was.

Scarier than ghosts- nearly having Joong Won killed off

It would have just been seen as a get-out-of-jail-free card if the idea hadn’t been explored previously (again- cough, ‘Who Are You’, cough). Don’t get me wrong- I’m super stoked that Joong Won didn’t cark it before the completion of this drama. Because I love him. But it was a nice to change to actually genuinely worry about the safety of our hero. Because in a drama all about a ghost-whisperer- your hero is far from immortal. 

Happy characters, happy viewers

Conclusion:

Everything was tied in a nice pretty bow, which is exactly what I want in a rom-com. People got hitched, babies got conceived, and everyone earned their happily ever after. Yay! Some of the happy ever afters were a bit random as we’d had very little to do with some of the characters, so we didn’t actually know what their deal was- but it was still nice. I’m so glad the show ultimately decided to go with Tae Yang keeping her ability to see ghosts, as that was kind of the whole point. It would have felt like too much of a cop-out to have her magically ‘cured’ of her ailment in the last episode. That being said, I do wish we’d been taken on Tae Yang’s journey of self discovery rather than hearing about it as she was telling Joong Won. Because it was a really nice tie-up for where her ability came from and how she could now live on with it. 

What Wasn’t:

Support Character Immobility:

Our support characters kind of became a bit of a waste. Kang Candy fell away pretty swiftly after he was exiled from the love-triangle, and you never really saw him fall hard for that second chick. His end tie-up with her was nice, but we didn’t really get a sense of how he got there.

So not on board for this love-line. Go get a different fish for your aquarium, Kang Candy

Joong Won’s father seemed to be a big plot-point that we sort of darted around completely- so much so that I wonder why they bothered including him in the drama at all. Lee Chun Hee was brought in far too late to really matter- which is a shame, as his presence would have added a whole heap more conflict to the series. The idea of staying comfortable with someone from your own world (Lee Chun Hee) or stepping out for someone different (Joong Won) was an interesting dilemma. But it became far less interesting as Tae Yang had already fallen for Joong Won. Hard. I really wish Lee Chun Hee’s role had a bigger part to play in the series. I don’t even know what his character was supposed to be called- he was just Lee Chun Hee for the two or three episodes he was in.

Unexpected (but far from unwanted) bromance

All in all, the characters that weren’t our main leads seemed to fall into two distinct, two-dimensional categories: Cheering for Main Couple, and Trying to Split Up Main Couple. Except for maybe Secretary Kim. Who was delightful and surprisingly substantial. Who else was glad that he didn’t turn out to be a bad guy? I sure was. 

Push and Pull:

My least liked type of romances are push-and-pull romances. Thankfully this drama did have very little, but the episodes where this type of romance came into play were downright irritating. I prefer when our characters both try and pull away from each other, both try to pull closer to each other, or one pulls closer while the other stays stationary.

Looks like it's time for all that unnecessary angst to kick in

It becomes a tad too angsty for my taste when for every step our hero makes forward, our heroine is taking a step back. Particularly when they’ve both expressed their interest. Not to mention that characters born from the Hong Sisters’ creation tend to stand around and talk about their feelings a lot. Which is okay if it were pure and honest- but half the time it’s the characters trying to convince each other (and sometimes themselves) that they don’t need each other and they’ll be fine on their own. Hoo boy. I’d much rather see them acting on their feelings rather than chitty-chatting about them, especially when the chitty-chat doesn’t actually result in anything. With the lack of action and all the not-quite-true statements, it can get a little confusing with subtitles and things getting left out in translation. Granted, most of the talk was logical, and at least it was easy to see where the characters were coming from. But at the end of the day, if you’re sad with them but miserable without them, isn’t sadness the slightly better option? I don’t know, I feel like they were trying so hard to make Tae Yang different from a Candy Girl- but that’s kind of how she ended up anyway. Sure, her reasoning for disappearing off was for herself and not some sort of misguided sense of ‘he’s better off without me’- but she still ended up disappearing off.

Classic Hong Sisters Finale Wind-Up (Or Wind-Down):

Of course, of course, the Hong Sisters have to chuck in some of my most hates K-Drama tropes. Right at the end too. Amnesia- check. Separation of leads- check. Time skip- check. Oof. Not what I was wanting in a drama that was managing to balance its momentum quite nicely.

Who are you? Who am I? Where'd my girlfriend go?

Okay, Joong Won’s amnesia wasn’t the worst case of memory loss I’ve ever seen (who could forget the Hong Sister’s last fiasco?), but it still felt like it was simply trying to draaaaaaw out the last couple of episodes. I’ve already seen him fall for our heroine despite her creepy ghost vision, do I really have to watch him figure all that out again? Then the time skip where our main leads are separated. Seriously, does anyone actually enjoy this?

Please. Just make out and be done with it.

Why do K-Dramas insist on doing this in attempts to add dramatic tension in the final hour? IT’S JUST ANNOYING GUYS, STOP IT. While I’ll admit there was some reasoning behind the separation of our characters, I still didn’t love the idea. If perhaps we’d journeyed with Tae Yang on her brilliant self-discovery trip I’d be singing a different tune- but no. I was back here watching Joong Won be sad and lonely while Tae Yang went and ‘found herself’. And then we get some bull about her wanting to appear like a normal girl before telling him that, yes- she can in fact still see ghosts. Sorry, I’m firmly in Joong Won’s camp for this one. If the result is the same, why does the order matter? Not to mention we’ve just spent the last 16 episodes watching how he loves her in spite of her ability. If not more so because of it, as he sees how warm and caring she is through it. 

Re-watch?

Probably not. While I did enjoy the drama overall, much of this enjoyment came from the chemistry between our two leads. The main plot was a tad weak, and our support characters were a little flat. Gong Hyo Jin and So Ji Sub were dynamic- but not enough to warrant a re-watch.

♫ Can you feel my heartbeat? It's beating for you ♫